When your town hall level 1 to 6 the best way to farm is to make mostly Barbarians and Archers. If you have 3 barracks make 2 with barbs and 1 with archers and so on.

1. Look for full mines and elixir collectors on the outside and use only the amount of troop you need to get it, don't worry about trophies because you can't buy upgrades with trophies! Yes the bonus is good when you get up in the gold to crystal range but not the end of the world is you loot and run.

2. Always upgrade your army camps and research your new troops first thing after going up to a new town hall level.

3. If you really want trophies you can basically surround any base town hall 5 and lower and get a star from 50%, of course if you run into a open town hall take it out and move on. Have a keen eye because some people like to surround their town halls with hidden teslas, make sure you have enough troops on hand if they pop up.

4. Once your a little higher, like a town hall 7 or 8. I like to use giants as meat shields. make about 9 to 12 giants and the rest barbarians and archers. send in the giants to take all the fire and follow them with archers and barbs. You can easily snipe most loot, even take a few wallbreakers if you want. Look for bases with gold or lower walls so your giants get through fast.

5. Giants are also handy for taking out open town halls with lots of defenses behind, send a few giants off to get killed while a bunch of barbarians and archers shoot at the town hall.